Isolate. Calm. Think.

Hello friend,

Today I want to write down one of my experience as an IT guy just so I could look back and re-read the things that I've learned throughout my career.

Since I think cyber-security plays an important role in the forthcoming Industrial Revolution 4.0, I want to make sure that I do have some knowledge in this area.

So what is cyber-security? Well, if I could give you a one sentence layman answer, it would be: Any effort that involves in protecting your digital asset. What do I mean by digital assets? Well, it's practically everything that is deemed valuable to you that exist in digital form. So things like the photos you've captured, the videos you've curated, the emails you've sent out, you're username and password for any of your online account and etc. Basically, any steps in protecting these digital assets, are what cyber-security is all about.

One of the most memorable experience that I've had was when it comes to finding solution during a broadcast storm. First, let me give an idea about what is a broadcast storm. Essentially, a broadcast storm is when a collection of your computer-network devices went offline due to some disturbance in the network connection. It usually starts with a network congestion and the internet suddenly becomes very slow and laggy. Then, it'll go completely offline. Now, the cause for this broadcast storm could be a lot of things. But in this particular situation, it was due to an outdated software in one of the computer. 

So what did I do in this situation? So with guidance from my superior, we manually checked for the culprit among the computers. We tested the connectivity on the computer one by one until we have finally found the source of it. So it turns out that one of the software in that computer was outdated. As a result, it has allowed some malware that constantly used up the computer's internet resources to the point that it hogs up all the internet connectivity. As a result, all the devices that is connected to the same switch went down. Thankfully, the fix for this was an easy one. We've updated the software and isolate the computer by connecting it to another network switch where it has no other devices dependent on it. 

Now, what have I learned from this experience? I think, the most crucial step in dealing with this situation was isolation. Whenever we've identified any issues pertaining a specific device, the first thing to do was to isolate it so that it doesn't interfere with the other system. By doing so, it gave us more time to calmly assesses the situation deeper and came up with a solution. 

This experience may not be of use to me now, but maybe in the future, when the situation demands for a solution, just remember to isolate the problem first in order to give you more time to calmly think of an appropriate action.

Isolate. Calm. Think.

Fin.